Carlotta Ferrari’s research while affiliated with University of Lausanne and other places

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Publications (8)


Figure 3. Optical microscopy images of (A) palladium; (B) platinum; (C) gold; and (D) bare carbon electrodes. SEM observation of the surface of (E) palladium; (F) platinum; (G) gold; and (H) bare carbon electrodes. Bottom: EDX analysis of the surfaces (I-L).
Composition of the training and test sets used to compute and validate the classification models of the EC sensor.
Electrochemical Sensor for Explosives Precursors’ Detection in Water
  • Article
  • Full-text available

March 2017

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576 Reads

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18 Citations

Challenges

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Agnes Degiuli

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Carlotta Ferrari

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[...]

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Although all countries are intensifying their efforts against terrorism and increasing their mutual cooperation, terrorist bombing is still one of the greatest threats to society. The discovery of hidden bomb factories is of primary importance in the prevention of terrorism activities. Criminals preparing improvised explosives (IE) use chemical substances called precursors. These compounds are released in the air and in the waste water during IE production. Tracking sources of precursors by analyzing air or wastewater can then be an important clue for bomb factories’ localization. We are reporting here a new multiplex electrochemical sensor dedicated to the on-site simultaneous detection of three explosive precursors, potentially used for improvised explosive device preparation (hereafter referenced as B01, B08, and B15, for security disclosure reasons and to avoid being detrimental to the security of the counter-explosive EU action). The electrochemical sensors were designed to be disposable and to combine ease of use and portability in a screen-printed eight-electrochemical cell array format. The working electrodes were modified with different electrodeposited metals: gold, palladium, and platinum. These different coatings giving selectivity to the multi-sensor through a “fingerprint”-like signal subsequently analyzed using partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). Results are given regarding the detection of the three compounds in a real environment and in the presence of potentially interfering species.

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Expert System for Bomb Factory Detection by Networks of Advance Sensors

January 2017

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275 Reads

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10 Citations

Challenges

(1) Background: Police forces and security administrations are nowadays considering Improvised explosives (IEs) as a major threat. The chemical substances used to prepare IEs are called precursors, and their presence could allow police forces to locate a bomb factory where the on-going manufacturing of IEs is carried out. (2) Methods: An expert system was developed and tested in handling signals from a network of sensors, allowing an early warning. The expert system allows the detection of one precursor based on the signal provided by a single sensor, the detection of one precursor based on the signal provided by more than one sensor, and the production of a global alarm level based on data fusion from all the sensors of the network. (3) Results: The expert system was tested in the Italian Air Force base of Pratica di Mare (Italy) and in the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) in Grindsjon (Sweden). (4) Conclusion: The performance of the expert system was successfully evaluated under relevant environmental conditions. The approach used in the development of the expert system allows maximum flexibility in terms of integration of the response provided by any sensor, allowing to easily include in the network all possible new sensors.


Iodine Value and Fatty Acids Determination on Pig Fat Samples by FT-NIR Spectroscopy: Benefits of Variable Selection in the Perspective of Industrial Applications

October 2016

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151 Reads

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18 Citations

Food Analytical Methods

In this work, FT-NIR spectroscopy was employed to determine iodine value (IV) and fatty acids (FA) content of pig fat samples, through the combined use of signal preprocessing, multivariate calibration, and variable selection methods. In particular, the main focus was on the use of variable selection methods, both in order to improve the predictive performance of the calibration models, and to identify relevant wavelengths that could be subsequently used for the development of simple, fast, and cheap hand-held devices, able to measure IV and FA content directly on the fat without the need of any sample pretreatment. Firstly, for each property of interest, partial least squares (PLS) multivariate calibration models were calculated considering the whole spectral range and testing different signal preprocessing methods. Then, once chosen the optimal signal preprocessing method, a two-step variable selection procedure was applied. In the first step, the interval-PLS variable selection algorithm was used to calculate a set of calibration models, whose outcomes were considered altogether in the second step, in order to select the optimal calibration model. The variable selection procedure allowed to lower the number of spectral variables retained by the model, and often led to an increase of the performance in prediction of the external test set samples.



Locating bomb factories by detecting hydrogen peroxide

June 2016

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127 Reads

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9 Citations

Talanta

The analytical capability to detect hydrogen peroxide vapour can play a key role in localizing a site where a H2O2 based Improvised Explosive (IE) is manufactured. In security activities, it is very important to obtain information in a short time. For this reason, an analytical method to be used in security activity needs portable devices. The authors have developed the first analytical method based on a portable luminometer, specifically designed and validated to locate IE manufacturing sites using quantitative on-site vapour analysis for H2O2. The method was tested both indoor and outdoor. The results demonstrate that the detection of H2O2 vapours could allow police forces to locate the site, while terrorists are preparing an attack. The collected data are also very important to develop new sensors; able to give an early alarm if located at a proper distance from a site where an H2O2 based IE is prepared.




Classification of pig fat samples from different subcutaneous layers by means of fast and non-destructive analytical techniques

June 2013

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81 Reads

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27 Citations

Food Research International

In the meat industry the fat portions coming from two different subcutaneous layers, i.e., inner and outer, are destined to the manufacturing of different products, hence the availability of cheap, rapid and affordable methods for the characterization of the overall fat quality is desirable. In this work the potential usefulness of three techniques, i.e. tristimulus colorimetry, FT-NIR spectroscopy and NIR hyperspectral imaging, were tested to rapidly discriminate fat samples coming from the two different layers. To this aim, various multivariate classification methods were used, also including signal processing and feature selection techniques. The classification efficiency in prediction obtained using colorimetric data did not reach excellent results (78.1%); conversely, the NIR-based spectroscopic methods gave much more satisfactory models, since they allowed to reach a prediction efficiency higher than 95%. In general, the samples of the outer layer showed a high degree of variability with respect to the samples of the inner layer. This is probably due to a greater variability of the outer samples in terms of fatty acid composition and water amount.

Citations (8)


... Clandestine laboratory investigation is one of the most dangerous tasks undertaken by law enforcement due to the presence of hazardous chemical compounds [2]. A "bomb factory" cannot be immediately distinguished from a clandestine laboratory preparing drugs of abuse, despite the presence in the scientific literature of analytical approaches to spot bomb factories [6][7][8][9][10]. ...

Reference:

A Deep Learning Approach to Investigating Clandestine Laboratories Using a GC-QEPAS Sensor
Electrochemical Sensor for Explosives Precursors’ Detection in Water

Challenges

... Clandestine laboratory investigation is one of the most dangerous tasks undertaken by law enforcement due to the presence of hazardous chemical compounds [2]. A "bomb factory" cannot be immediately distinguished from a clandestine laboratory preparing drugs of abuse, despite the presence in the scientific literature of analytical approaches to spot bomb factories [6][7][8][9][10]. ...

Expert System for Bomb Factory Detection by Networks of Advance Sensors

Challenges

... In a normal working environment, the safe concentration of hydrogen peroxide should not exceed 0.92 mM. For example, Romolo et al. [119] explored the on-site detection and analysis of H 2 O 2 vapor using an HRPand luminol-based chemiluminescence sensor in both indoor and outdoor environments. This sensor achieved an LDL of 0.2 µM in indoor settings. ...

Locating bomb factories by detecting hydrogen peroxide
  • Citing Article
  • June 2016

Talanta

... However, though the method provided automatic measurement the continuous flowing of reagent still generated large amounts of waste solution. Furthermore, nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR), near infrared(NIR), and Furior transform infrared(FT-IR) spectroscopic techniques have been proposed (Baeten & Aparicio, 2000;Che Man & Setiowaty, 1999;Foca et al., 2016;Hendl, 2001;Yang et al., 2005). The gas chromatographic method is an alternative method for determination of IN as per AOCS Cd1c-85 (Firestone, 1989). ...

Iodine Value and Fatty Acids Determination on Pig Fat Samples by FT-NIR Spectroscopy: Benefits of Variable Selection in the Perspective of Industrial Applications

Food Analytical Methods

... A hyperspectral reflectance imaging protocol is the available spectral and hyperspectral imaging technique for detecting bacteria. The methods operate in the range of three central regions near-infrared (NIR), mid-infrared (MIR), and far infrared (FIR) spectrum [130]. Traditional spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging techniques, when compared to modern imaging techniques, can provide spectral and spatial information detecting target samples and can be used as a visual and smart technology for pathogen analyses in food products. ...

The potential of spectral and hyperspectral-imaging techniques for bacterial detection in food: A case study on lactic acid bacteria
  • Citing Article
  • June 2016

Talanta

... Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) technology has emerged as a significant focus of research due to its potential in identifying the bruise times (Ferrari et al., 2015) and bruise levels (Tan et al., 2018) of fruits. This technique can detect subcutaneous bruises invisible to the naked eye because it can simultaneously acquire both images and spectral data of the sample (Wu & Sun, 2013). ...

Fast exploration and classification of large hyperspectral image datasets for early bruise detection on apples
  • Citing Article
  • August 2015

Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems

... Other widely used statistical techniques that lead to the compression of hyperspectral data includes Principal Component Analysis (PCA) [13][14][15] and Independent Component Analysis (ICA). 14, 16 PCA transforms the original set of variables into a new set of principal components (uncorrelated variables or orthogonal), ordered so that the first few retain most of the variation present in all of the original variables. ...

Handling large datasets of hyperspectral images: Reducing data size without loss of useful information
  • Citing Article
  • November 2013

Analytica Chimica Acta

... However, this analytical procedure is expensive, time-consuming and, according to Pellegrino et al. (2003), could allow the presence of rind percentage (RP) values up to 24% (w/w), which exceed the 18% (w/w) threshold value by 6 RP units. Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been widely employed for fast and non-destructive analysis and characterization of food products, thanks to its ability to easily provide a spectral fingerprint codifying the chemical composition of the analysed sample (Curda & Kukacková, 2004;Woodcock, Fagan, O'Donnell, & Downey, 2008;Foca et al., 2013;Kraggerud et al., 2014). In particular, previous research studies evaluated the effectiveness of NIR spectroscopy in verifying the authenticity of P-R grated cheese and in discriminating compliant from non-compliant samples (Cevoli et al., 2013a;Cevoli et al., 2013b). ...

Classification of pig fat samples from different subcutaneous layers by means of fast and non-destructive analytical techniques
  • Citing Article
  • June 2013

Food Research International